Hannah Duston

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Hannah Duston

Hannah Duston (December 23, 1657 - c. 1736) was a colonial New England woman who, having been captured during an Indian raid, escaped from her captors by killing them in the night and fleeing in their canoe. She is believed to be the first woman honored in the United States with a statue. Due to the spell-by-sound method of the time, her last name can also be spelled Dustin, Dustan, or even Durstan.

Hannah, her husband Thomas, and her nine children were living in Haverhill, Massachusetts when in 1697 the town was attacked by Abenaki Indians. Hannah, her baby Martha, who was only days old, and her nurse Mary Neff were captured and forced to march into the wilderness. The Indians took the baby from Hannah and killed her by smashing her against a tree. Hannah and Mary traveled with a family group north, during which time they were joined by Samuel Lennardson, a 14-year-old white captive. Along the way, they stopped at an island in the Merrimack River at the mouth of the Contoocook River near what is now Boscawen, New Hampshire, where the party stayed some days. Hannah there led Mary and Samuel in a revolt after all were asleep, using the Indians' tomahawks to kill 10 of the 12 Indians. (A young boy and a woman escaped.) The former captives immediately left in a canoe, taking with them scalps as proof of the incident.

They travelled down the river only during the night, and after several days arrived back in Haverhill. The Massachusetts General Court later awarded them a reward for killing the raiders. Hannah received 25 pounds, and Mary and Samuel split another 25 pounds. (various accounts say 50 or 25 pounds, and some accounts allege that only Duston received the award).

The event became well known, due in part to the account of Cotton Mather in his Magnalia Christi Americana. She became more famous in the nineteenth century as her story was retold by Henry David Thoreau and in many genealogical histories. In the 1870s, a statue of Hannah was placed in Haverhill town square, and another on the island in New Hampshire.

Hannah was the daughter of early colonist Michael Emerson and his wife Hannah Webster. In contrast to her celebrated story, Hannah's sister Elizabeth Emerson (1664-1693) was hanged after being convicted of murdering her illegitimate twin infants.

[edit] References

Caverly, Robert B. Heroism of Hannah Duston: Together With the Indian Wars of New England. Heritage Books. ISBN 1-55613-301-4
Gordon M. Sayre, ed. American Captivity Narratives. Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ISBN 0-395-98073-9
Namias, June. White Capives: Gender and Ethnicity on the American Frontier. University of North Carolina Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8078-4408-X
HannahDustin.com site includes various versions of the story